The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) latest Forbearance and Call Volume Survey shows that as of March 7, the total number of loans in forbearance was 5.14% of servicers’ portfolio volume – equivalent to approximately 2.6 million homeowners.
The share of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans in forbearance decreased to 2.88% – a 6-basis-point improvement from a week earlier.
Ginnie Mae loans in forbearance decreased 12 basis points to 7.16%, while the forbearance share for portfolio loans and private-label securities (PLS) remained unchanged relative to the prior week, at 9.05%.
The percentage of loans in forbearance for independent mortgage bank (IMB) servicers decreased 6 basis points to 5.45%, and the percentage of loans in forbearance for depository servicers declined 9 basis points to 5.19%.
“One year after the onset of the pandemic, many homeowners are approaching 12 months in their forbearance plan. That is likely why call volume to servicers picked up in the prior week to the highest level since last April, and forbearance exits increased to their highest level since January,” says Mike Fratantoni, MBA’s senior vice president and chief economist.
“Homeowners with federally backed loans have access to up to 18 months of forbearance, but they need to contact their servicer to receive this additional relief,” he adds.
By stage, 14.1% of total loans in forbearance are in the initial forbearance plan stage, while 83.3% are in a forbearance extension. The remaining 2.6% are forbearance re-entries.
Total weekly forbearance requests as a percentage of servicing portfolio volume (#) remained the same relative to the prior two weeks, at 0.07%.
Of the cumulative forbearance exits for the period from June 1, 2020, through March 7, 2021:
- 27.3% represented borrowers who continued to make their monthly payments during their forbearance period
- 26.1% resulted in a loan deferral/partial claim
- 15.0% resulted in reinstatements, in which past-due amounts are paid back when exiting forbearance.
- 14.1% represented borrowers who did not make all of their monthly payments and exited forbearance without a loss mitigation plan in place yet
- 8.1% resulted in a loan modification or trial loan modification
- 7.6% resulted in loans paid off through either a refinance or by selling the home
Photo by pnwra, licensed under CC BY 2.0
